Broad and Cook mount a comeback to rescue England
The 2nd day of the Melbourne Test has been a day full of English authority over every sector of the game. The English team are now trailing by 135 runs at stumps.
Alastair Cook is back into scoring runs. Stuart Broad got his magical charm back. England seem to have gotten their old self back, albeit a little too late.
Losing all of the first 3 matches in the series, team England have already lost the Urn. They were surely hoping to salvage some pride in the last 2 matches.
Despite a good performance from the top-order, Australia lost the rest of 7 wickets in quick succession today. Steve Smith was out at 76 runs and became the 5th captain to have scored 500+ runs in an Ashes series with Don Bradman's 810 runs in 1936/37 Ashes being at the top.
The Aussie skipper was bowled out by Tom Curran and the next batsman to return to the pavilion was Mitchell Marsh. Scoring 61 runs, he was dismissed by Chris Woakes.
Then it became a purely entertaining show full of Broad and Anderson's bowling excellence. Stuart Broad and James Anderson took a wicket each yesterday. Together they bagged 5 more wickets today. Broad picked up the wickets of Shaun Marsh, Pat Cummins and Jackson Bird while Anderson got the wickets of Tim Paine and Nathan Lyon.
Tim Paine scored 24 runs and that was the only double-digit score from the fresh batsmen.
Coming out to bat, England registered a total of 192 runs for 2 wickets. Mark Stoneman was caught and bowled at 15 runs by Lyon and James Vince scored 17 runs and was trapped lbw by Hazlewood.
The rest was full of Australian bowlers' frustration alongside captain Root and opener Cook's beautiful batting. Alastair Cook became the second visiting player after Sunil Gavaskar to score 100s in each of Australia's five major Test venues (Gabba, Adelaide, WACA, MCG & SCG).
While Root ended the day being unbeaten at a run short of his half-century, Cook's wait of 12 long innings ended with his 32nd Test ton. And with this 102 runs' partnership, England are trying to bring out their real character and enjoy a fair share of glory.
The Boxing Day Test, which was looking like a mere formality or another step for the Kangaroos towards whitewashing England, has finally got its thrill back.
